The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-19
HUNTING THE HORSE THIEF.
Too Much Protection for the Thieves
But None for the Horse.
tFont the ChicaQo Trib1tnt

from the Chicago Tribune.
One day while we were in Northern
Nebraska, near the Ponca Indian reserva-
ton, we were constantly meeting members
of farmers vigilance committee looking
for man who had the night before stolen
'lettle sor'l mare with a bob-tail an white
for'ard foot" The members OF the commit
tee went on horseback in twos, and about
every half hour we would meet couple
One pair stopped us, and the older of the
men borrowed dozen 44-calibre cartridges
of us.
Don't the courts give you enough pro-
tectiongn asked Briar.
mo, sir" promptly replied the man.
"All law, no justice. Lots o. protection for
boss thieves, but none for hosses."
well, | supp Sc they want to be very
careful that no innocent man is punished
There pears to be some such notion
a-sticl1in' into 'em. A year ago a man stole
boss an We chased him up into Dakota,
caught him an brought him back. an give
him up to the thorities. The trial come on
an we swore to ev'rything we lowed was
Necessary. We reckoned we had him when
the ledge, big, fat old cuss, woke up,
snorted round in his chair few minutes.
wiped his specs, an said we hadn't proved
that the prls'ner ever saw a boss an that
mebby he was canvassin' the country for
Sunday school books, an the jury of CON
stalk dry goods clerks brought in a verdick
of not guilty.
THAT was certainly discouraging.
Yes, some. They turned the Teller loose.
an a month after he got another boss an
lit out for Iowa. We followed an caught
him an brought him back an s'rendered
him. Trial come right on an we prepared
to swar worse m before, when what d he
do but claim we didn't have no requisition, OF,
something, an wa'n'U no officers nohow, an
got writ of herbs corpus or some such
business, an scooted away agin only first
he talked loud bout havin' us all rested for
kidnapin' him, an scarf US, SO we used to
go out an sleep in the co'n-felds night so if
the sheriff come he couldn't find us
well, the same Teller six weeks after
rode away one boss an led two others. We
caught him fore he got out o. the county
an turned him over to the Sheriff The dav
of the trial we all went in an swore to all
we knowed an heap more. The ledge
woke up agin. rubbed his bald head awhile.
an said mebby the Teller was guilty, but
the witnesses was the biggest pack o. liars
he ever saw, an advised the jury, made up
o. bout the same crowd o. yell + dry goods
clerks, to take into consideration what a
gang o. perjers we was Well, that night
in they come with a verdick o. not guilty. ,
an the same evenin' bout half of us was
rested for perj'ry an the other half was
shot all to pieces by the Sheriff while tryin'
! to git at the thief in the Jail That's the
way it went lettin' the law take its
course! That's justicel There's your couts
Well, i'll n little while the same
cuss got another boss. We run him clear
'crost the State TO Kansas fore we caught
him. When we got him we put rope
round his neck, stood him up ON bar'l d,
an tied the rope to the cross piece of tele-
graph pole Then we held good, square
trial an give him more show than he was
really entitled TO, an started back home, Of
course movin' the bar'l away mighty keer-
full fore we went. That's the way it goes
when we tend TO things ourselves! That's
busnessi There's your anti-hoss-thief 'soci-
alton! We've fixed sev'ral the same way
since. That old snoozer of a ledge is
snortn round on the bench vet, but he's
bout out o. business, an | bet fore next
spring he'll lose his job entirely. JeS' lincer
round these parts twenty -four hours, strau-
ger, an you'll see this sneak that stole the
sor'i mare dancin' high, or III lose my
guess"